Schoenhard wins Stanley County title

PublishedDecember 5, 2012

By Jay Davis

The eyes of Chase Schoenhard, and everyone else in the gym, are fixed on the referee awaiting the official’s call. Schoenhard scored a last-second escape to defeat Kacie Harrig of Spearfish/Lead-Deadwood 4-3 in the 195-pound semifinals at the Stanley County Invitational on Saturday. Schoenhard went on to pin his next opponent and capture the title.

After missing last season due to injury, sophomore Chase Schoenhard celebrated his return to wrestling by taking first place at 192 pounds at the Stanley County Invitational on Saturday.
Schoenhard was not the only newcomer to enjoy some opening weekend success as eight of the 11 Tigers placed in the tournament.
“We wrestled pretty well,” said coach Spencer Novotny, “being so young, we had a lot of kids place.”
Many had to come through the loser’s bracket after drawing top seeds in the early rounds.
“We got put in some bad positions because of seeds,” said Novotny. “But we wrestled pretty well against some good wrestlers.”
Schoenhard won his title at 195 pounds, winning three straight matches. His big win came in the semifinals. Schoenhard and Kacie Herrig of Spearfish/Lead-Deadwood were deadlocked at 3-3 with just two seconds left and Schoenhard on his table for a referee’s start. The match looked headed for overtime before Schoenhard pulled off a quick escape and earned the winning point as time expired. The title match was not as dramatic as Schoenhard pinned Seth Novak of Todd County at 1:11.
Two Tigers made splashes at 182 pounds where David Jensen took second and Teddy Lopez took fourth.
Jensen went through his teammate to get to the championship. After pinning Gabe Grassrope of Lyman and winning a 6-3 match over Brody Boes of Burke-Gregory, Jensen battled to a 10-4 win over Lopez. His title hopes were dashed when he got caught by a single-leg takedown and was pinned by Dalton McCollam of Bennett County.
Lopez opened by pinning Luke McFarland of Spearfish/Lead-Deadwood before falling to Jensen in the semis. He fought back to pin Tanner McCloskey of Todd County, but got caught and pinned by McFarland in the third-place match.
The rest of the Tigers had to fight their way back to the medals rounds. Bray Harrison, Jaden Madison, Jordan Feist and Connor Stoick finished seventh and Austin Borah finished eighth.
Harrison took seventh with a pin at 2:56 over Bleau Hoge of Lemmon-McIntosh. Jaden Madison won his seventh-place match with a pin at 1:56 over Thane Allen of Todd County. Jordan Feist took seventh with a quick 27-second pin over Haydeon Schelski of Lyman. Stoick earned his first on-mat victory (first win was a forfeit) by battling past Tucker Jones of Stanley County in an 11-7 match. Borah was pinned by Kyler Schmidt of Spearfish/Lead-Deadwood in the seventh-place match. His most important win was a 38-second pin over Gabe Garrigan of Sully Buttes in the losers’ bracket.

Faulkton
The Tigers will compete in the Faulkton Invitational on Saturday with wrestling starting at 10 a.m.
“We usually do pretty well in Faulkton,” said Novotny. “We’ll see how the kids respond.”
The Tigers are using the week to get better and learn from their bouts in Ft. Pierre.
“We’ve got a lot of things we’re working on and implementing this week,” said Novotny.
Novotny added that seniors Brady Spiry and Jayson Van Vugt will be back in action this week and every wrestler will be in a little better shape.
“We lost a couple matches in the third quarter, but we’re close to getting in shape,” said Novotny. “It’s taking a little longer. With all the new guys we have to take baby steps.”